Manchester City has secured a significant victory in its legal dispute against the Premier League after the rules of sponsorship organization were declared “void and not enforceable”, according to Times.
An independent tribunal decided in October that the rules for the rules for transactions of the Associated Party (APT) forced between 2021 and 2024 were illegal in three areas.
The Premier League changed these three laws in November – supported by 16 of their 20 members – but City denied the validity of the aptes as a whole, and the argument of the English champions was confirmed.
Breaking: City was achieved a big victory when the Premier League sponsoring rules are declared voidhttps://t.co/vhyshznkm3
– Matt Lawton (@lawton_times) February 14, 2025
According to the Times, which claims to have seen the judgment of the independent tribunal from three high -ranking legal personalities in Sir Nigel Teare, Lord Dyson and Christopher Vajda KC that the apted rules and changed apt rules were illegal in three respect.
“A decision now arises when it comes to the question of whether these three points can be separated from the remaining apt rules so that the remaining rules are valid and enforceable.
“The three respectes in which the actual rules and the amended apt rules were illegal cannot be separated with the result that the APT rules as a whole are invalid and not enforceable.”
Manchester City and Newcastle could benefit from it
Rules around the APT have been initiated to prevent clubs from inflating the value of sponsoring transactions with the associated parties. The tribunal’s judgment could enable city such as Abu Dhabi, and Newcastle, who owned Saudi Arabia’s public investment funds in the city, to make new agreements.
The Times reports that the managing director of Premier League today wrote Richard Masters to his clubs today and tried to reduce the importance of the tribunal’s judgment.
In the letter, Masters is said to have admitted that the previous rules were invalid and not enforceable, but emphasized that “new rules were chosen”.
